Thanks to Jeff and Aarash we had a place to stay while in Vegas. Aarash found another of his patented online super deals and Jeff had then booked the deal at the Hilton for three nights and had picked up the tab!!! We were planning on getting up early and getting a long climbing day in, but instead, Greg woke up at 6:30 and took the car to a local shop. We were worried about getting ripped off, or just having an expensive repair bill, the last thing we needed given our unemployment status. Instead Greg found a shop near the hotel that was able to check the car out right away. This place was great, and they definitely didn't try and rip us off. They ended up finding a rock lodged in the brake system which was scraping up against the right front rotor. Instead of charging Greg, the guy just told him to give the mechanic a tip. Greg was certainly in a good mood when we got back to the hotel, to find Jeff and Courtney still asleep, and the quick fix still allowed for a good day of climbing.
We have two of the worst Red Rock guide books that are available. Jeff has a new guide books that is by far the best one but couldn't find it in Colorado, so in continuing his awesomeness, bought a new one in Colorado before his flight. Unfortunately, that guide book was left in the back seat pocket on the plane. Sorry Jeff we had to include that.
So we were stuck with our old guide books and as usual the 'one hour' approach time turned into two and a half hours of uphill bushwacking and boulder hopping. We climbed three pitches of "Unimpeachable Groping" before deciding to come down and hike out. The climbing was great but with the late start and long approach, we ran out of time for the rest of the climb.
 |
Courtney belaying Greg on the
first pitch of "Unimpeachable Groping" |
 |
| Jeff at the top of the 3rd pitch of "Unimpeachable Groping" |
 |
| Greg getting ready to rappel down off of "Unimpeachable Groping" |
That night we got back to the hotel and got ready for a night on the town in Vegas. It was pretty late, so we ended up having some appetizers and margaritas at a Mexican restaurant. The restaurant was getting ready to close when we got there, but they said we could come in anyway. We had finished eating, and were finishing our drinks, when the very skilled waitress came around and poured all of our drinks into to-go cups without us even noticing. Before we knew it, we had paid, and been shuffled out of the restaurant with our drinks in hand, wondering what had happened. The three of us agreed that we were very impressed with this restaurant. It was definitely not their first time kicking people out at closing time . We played some black jack, and slots, and hit the sack, excited for another day of climbing.
The next day was my birthday...the big "29"! We also had several more friends coming into town that night. We decided to take it easy, since we were going to have a big celebration that night, so we just did some single pitch climbing in the second pull out of the 13 mile loop. At around 7:30 we met a bunch of friends at Ferraro's Italian Restaurant. It was sooo delicious, and really great to see everyone. Next, it was on to the casino's. Courtney quickly lost all of the money that she had won the night before, but Greg hit the jackpot on a slot machine and won over a hundred dollars!
 |
| Greg on "Fear and Loathing" |
 |
| Court leading on the Magic School Bus rock |
 |
| Jeff leading on the Magic School Bus |
 |
| Court Belaying in Red Rocks |
 |
| Courtney's birthday dinner at Ferraro's |
Our third day climbing in Red Rocks there was a wind advisory with gusts up to 60 mph, so we spent most of the day climbing with everyone in the Black Corridor, a fairly sheltered climbing area. Greg and I had decided that the next day we were going to make our second attempt at climbing "Black Orpheus". This is a 10 pitch climb on the Solar Slab wall. About 4 years ago, we attempted this climb, but ended up getting off route and ended up climbing on something that was dirty, brittle and well beyond our ability. That day ended with a sprained ankle, a tarantula attack, and too many cactus stabs to count. Needless to say, we were excited to give it another shot.
Since we had to get up early the next morning to start the 2 hour approach to the base of the climb, we decided not to go back into Vegas with everyone that night, and instead camped at the Red Rocks campground. It gets pretty cold at night in the desert, so to save time, we decided that it would be best if Greg got all of our climbing gear organized for the next day, while I set up the tent and got us ready for the night. Well, remember those 60 mph gusts of wind I talked about that day...well, putting a tent up in that definitely proved easier said than done.
That next morning we woke up early and drove into the loop road as the gate opened at 6am. There were clouds rolling in through the mountains and it appeared to have rained a little throughout the night. The soft porous sandstone of Red Rocks shouldn't be climbed on after rain for a day or so. We did have hope that the rain didn't reach our climb and that the rock would be dry. Regardless of any rain the night before, as we got further into the canyon a light mist turned to a drizzle and the canyon filled up with darker rain clouds. About 25 minutes into the hike we made the tough decision to turn back, even if the clouds burned off and the sun came out, the rock would be too brittle and dangerous. On our way out we passed a couple looking to climb on the Eagle wall. We told them how wet things were deeper in the canyon but they wanted to check it our for themselves. Seeing them continue on certainly made our decision harder to take and even made us reconsider for a few minutes. In the end I know we did the smart thing and I hope they were safe in their endeavours.
 |
| Approach to Oak Creek Canyon Rainbow |
 |
Walk of shame out of the canyon
|
Black Orpheus 2 and Greg/Courtney 0.
We packed up the car and headed to Joshua Tree disappointed and itching to climb. We were still getting an early start and knew that we could still get a good day of climbing in at JTree.
No comments:
Post a Comment